A national museum to showcase the Malay daggers, the kris, will be built this year in Surakarta.
Surakarta to build museum to preserve kris tradition
Jakarta Post, 25 January 2013
The Surakarta city administration will build a national kris museum this year to create another cultural icon for the city in addition to batik and the traditional Javanese dance drama group Wayang Orang Sriwedari.
Surakarta Tourism and Culture Agency head Widdy Srihanto said that the museum plan had been there since 2005, after UNESCO recognized kris on its world heritage list.
“Solo [the city’s popular name] has enough materials [to build a kris museum] ranging from kris artisans and a kris community to Surakarta Palace, which has rare kris collections. What we need is coordination,” Widdy said on Saturday.
The kris is part of the city’s cultural legacy and is still used in cultural events and rituals.
Full story here.
